Keep your whaling promise Brown tells Hunt

The Abbott government must keep its promise to send a customs vessel to monitor Japanese whalers in the Southern Ocean, Bob Brown says.

The former Greens leader, who's now the chairman of the anti-whaling group Sea Shepherd Australia, says he's worried the government will walk away from its pre-election commitment.

"Environment Minister Greg Hunt promised the Australian electorate in May that they'd send a customs vessel down if the Japanese came," Dr Brown told AAP on Monday.

"Is this another broken promise on its way or will he insist - over (Foreign Minister) Julie Bishop who's been reassuring the Japanese - that a customs vessel will go down there as Australians expect."

He said Prime Minister Tony Abbott had not responded to his calls to back the commitment Mr Hunt made before the September election.

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In mid-October, Ms Bishop appeared to flag a shift in the Coalition's position.

In an address to the National Press Club in Tokyo she said Australia would make a judgment on whether to send a customs vessel when the whaling season arrived.

At the time, Mr Hunt's office insisted there'd been "no change in Australia's position".

"All parties must abide by the law and we need to ensure there is no risk to life and for this reason our presence would be about ensuring appropriate behaviour," a spokesman for Mr Hunt said at the time.

Dr Brown said Sea Shepherd activists were determined to disrupt any hunt by the Japanese.

"We'll be getting in the way of the harpoons," he said.

Japan's fleet is yet to depart for the annual hunt, which it says is legal under a scientific provision of the international whaling convention.

An International Court of Justice decision on Australia's case against Japanese whaling is expected soon.

Sea Shepherd activists and Japanese whalers have been involved in dangerous collisions in past whaling seasons. Sea Shepherd lost its vessel, the Ady Gil, after a collision in 2010.